The Milwaukee Brewers are one win from the World Series, and Robert Gasser just gave them one of the kind of October performances that can reshape a postseason series.
The rookie left-hander worked five scoreless innings in Wednesday’s Game 3 of the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, struck out three, and helped Milwaukee roll to a 6-2 win that pushed the Brewers ahead 3-0 in the series. He wasn’t the headliner entering the night, but by the end of it, he had done exactly what contenders need from unexpected arms: absorb important innings and keep the game under control.
For the Pirates, though, Gasser’s outing should hit a little differently. It’s one more reminder that pitching depth isn’t a nice extra. It’s survival gear.
Pittsburgh can point to a rotation that looks strong on paper. Paul Skenes is the ace.
Jared Jones finished the year looking like one of the most promising young starters in baseball. Bubba Chandler brings major upside.
Braxton Ashcraft broke through as an All-Star. That’s a lot of talent in one group.
But the 2026 season also showed how quickly that kind of promise can get stripped down by injuries and attrition.
Mitch Keller went down in early August with a teres major injury in his right arm. Ashcraft later landed on the injured list in September with arm discomfort, shutting down a breakout year in which he posted a 3.65 ERA over 165 1/3 innings. What had looked like a strength suddenly turned into a scramble.
That forced the Pirates into patchwork solutions. They leaned on bullpen games and on pitchers with little major-league experience, including Wilber Dotel, Khristian Curtis and Antwone Kelly, to cover innings during a late-season push that was already fading.
The results were rough at times, and none was worse than Sept. 11 against the Chicago Cubs, when Dotel, Curtis and Kelly combined to give up 12 runs in eight innings of a 12-2 loss. For a team trying to hang on in the National League Wild Card race, that was a gut punch.
Milwaukee is showing the opposite path. Gasser doesn’t have to be the face of the Brewers’ rotation.
He just has to be another pitcher they trust. That’s the difference depth makes in October, where one extra reliable arm can change how a staff holds up against elite lineups.
The Pirates should still have a strong base going into 2027. Skenes, Jones, Chandler and Ashcraft are expected to remain central pieces, and Keller should return from his injury as well.
But that group comes with obvious questions. Keller is coming off an injury-shortened season.
Ashcraft logged a heavy workload before his season ended. Jones has already had major injury issues.
Chandler is still settling into the majors.
Counting on all of them to stay healthy and effective for a full season is asking for trouble.
Pittsburgh doesn’t necessarily need to chase a top-of-the-market ace. What it does need is one more dependable major-league starter - someone who can step in when injuries, workload limits or performance dips hit. That could come from an affordable free-agent veteran or from a trade for a controllable arm.
Either way, the Pirates need more than names people like to dream on. They need insurance.
They finished 82-80 and missed the postseason, and the back end of the rotation was a big reason why. If they want 2027 to look different, they can’t let the same problem sink them again.
A young core can give Pittsburgh a foundation. Depth is what keeps the floor from collapsing when the season starts throwing punches.
In Other News...
Pirates Face A Costly David Bednar Question This Offseason
David Bednars path out of Pittsburgh and into free agency has become one of the more interesting offseason subplots for a club that still needs to sharpen its roster in multiple places. The Pirates moved on from him after a rough start to the 2026 season, only to watch him settle in and finish strong, which makes the trade look a little more complicated now than it did in the moment. The prospects Pittsburgh got back are part of the equation too, but the bigger question is what the Pirates are willing to spend if they want to keep a proven late-inning arm in the mix.
Bednar remains a high-end bullpen option, the kind of reliever any contender would be happy to plug into the back end, but Pittsburgh has to weigh that against a broader list of needs. The bullpen can always use help, yet the front office also has other roster areas demanding attention, and thats where the real tension sits for this winter. The Pirates may like the idea of a reunion, but whether they make a serious push could say more about their offseason priorities than about Bednar himself. [Read more 🡒]
Pirates May Be Running Out Of Time On Their Top Offseason Need
The Pirates have spent the early offseason treating second base as their clearest priority, and Brandon Lowe has emerged as the player most tied to that need. Pittsburgh has been weighing ways to address the spot while the free-agent market still has some depth, but the broader backdrop is making the decision harder. The club would prefer to sort through its options with some patience, especially with other second basemen available if the top target proves too expensive or too difficult to land.
The problem is the calendar may not offer much of that patience. A potential MLB lockout could quickly squeeze the Pirates leverage and limit what they can do if negotiations stall, turning what looked like a measured pursuit into a more urgent one. If the market tightens and Lowe remains available, Pittsburgh may have to decide sooner than planned whether to push hard for him or risk watching its top offseason need linger deeper into the winter. [Read more 🡒]
Pirates Still Lack The Late-Game Edge Contenders Rely On
The Pirates gave themselves something to build on with an 82-80 finish in 2026, their first winning season since 2018, but the run only sharpened the conversation around what still separates a good club from a true contender. In a year when the bullpen showed its flaws, Pittsburgh leaned on arms like Mason Montgomery and Yohan Ramrez, yet the late innings often looked more fragile than teams with October expectations can afford.
For a club trying to turn a modest step forward into a real jump, the relief corps remains the part of the roster that most needs sharpening. The Pirates have enough evidence now to know that better late-game run prevention is not just a luxury, and the next few moves will reveal whether they can turn a promising season into one with staying power. [Read more 🡒]